(one synonym : Hesperia porphyrescens)
Purple Brown Eye
PYRGINAE, HESPERIIDAE
Don Herbison-Evans (
donherbisonevans@yahoo.com )
&
Stella Crossley
(updated 1 July 2007)
(Specimen: courtesy of the
Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)
Don Herbison-Evans (
donherbisonevans@yahoo.com )
&
Stella Crossley
(updated 1 July 2007)
(Specimen: courtesy of the
Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)
This Caterpillar hatches from a white ribbed dome-shaped egg laid singly on the upper surface of a leaf of a foodplant. The Caterpillar is orange-brown with a pair of horns on its head. It lives by day in a shelter made from joining leaves together with silk. Nocturnally it emerges to feed. Its foodplants are all from the Laurel ( LAURACEAE ) family, including :
The Caterpillar pupates in its leafy shelter.
The adults are dark brown with a blue sheen, and a broad yellow stripe diagonally across each forewing. The undersides of the wings are similar.
The butterflies have a wing span of about 6 cms. They occur in tropical Queensland.
Further reading :
Michael F. Braby, Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp 68-69.
G.A. Wood, The life history of Chaetocneme porphyropis (Meyrick and Lower) (Lepidoptera:Hesperiidae:Pyrginae), Australian Entomological Magazine, Volume 11 (1984), Part 1.
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